Put Your Dynamics ERP House in Order: Prepare Now for the Economic Rebound

The economic news lately is encouraging.  Business activity, from real estate to demand for durable goods, seems to be trending upward for the first time in many, many months.  It appears the economy has bottomed out and we're about to turn the corner to recovery.  The question is this - will you be ready to capitalize on the increased activity?

In an economic downturn, layoffs inevitably occur, leaving many companies more lean than they've been in years.  While that's great when business volume is down, what happens when activity increases?  Are you gearing up for the greater volume?  What is your plan?  Will you do everything you can to make your existing staff more productive or will you just re-hire the heads that you had to let go during the recession?

Conversely, when business is booming, routine maintenance is put off because there are just not enough hours in the day to do it.  Will you go into the recovery still needing to perform that maintenance, perhaps putting it off until the next downturn in business?  How will that affect your users' productivity as business picks up again?

Here are five suggestions you might want to consider in preparation for the recovery:

1.  Invest in training.
Just a moderate amount of training can make a significant difference in the productivity of every one of your people.  ERP systems are complex.  Really good systems provide many time-saving tools that few users ever learn about because initial training during implementation is either woefully inadequate or is forgotten before users actually get their hands on the live system.  Recurrent training is an investment that will pay for itself ...